it was also important to recognize that the two appointments of president george w. bush had very different backgrounds from the justices that they replaced, and based on those backgrounds it was fair to question whether those justices would have the same in 8 dedication to federalism principles as the justices they were replacing. justice o'connor, most obviously, but chief justice rehnquist as well. they cut their teeth in the state system. they had substantial backgrounds on state courts, and with respect to the chief justice and justice and legal, although they had wonderful backgrounds, their backgrounds were in the federal government, so there was reason to wonder when they were appointed, it sure, based on their service in the executive branch they would probably understand separation of powers principles instinctively, but it is hard to know where they would be on federalism issues. because of that, perhaps, there were bold predictions in this case that this was not going to be a close case. i talked about the part of this case, but i think it is worth recogn